The author says it is the most exciting Derby he has seen. He traces the careers of the great 3yo contingent from that year - Tontonan, Grand Cidium, Taj Rossi, Leica Lover and others. Think Big and Leilani also get a mention.

He is justifiably harsh on Tommy Smith for campaigning Imagele in Perth in the summer of 73-74.

Great story. I was a youngster at the time and I remember going to the TAB to have couple of dollars on Grand Cidium to win the Caulfield Cup then going home to regret it as it continued to rain as I never liked betting on wet tracks. Recently while searching for European champions from the 1970s the London Times noted that American's bought horses to race and I infer the rich American's sent to Europe those horses they didn't think would stand the hard racing required to be successful in the USA. I ddn't think Tommy Smith wanted any softies in his stable either. The corollary of that is that rich European owners (there doesn't seem to be any other sort) only race for the breeding barn. Of course there was less of a financial incentive to race on as a 4YO in Europe (the King George and Arc being the exceptions) whereas in the USA 4YO's had to compete in big money handicaps with very few run at SW (split between grass and dirt). Now they have more big money SW races in USA and around the world but seem to race less. I imagine that if the best 4YO+ US horses that raced before the introduction of Breeder's cup raced today their records might be more impressive as they would not need to beat the handicapper.

Tim, Grand Cidium and Sobar were the "might-have-beens" of the early 70s for me. Grand Cidium really could have been anything; he showed so much promise in the spring of 1973.

That's a good point about American racing. Different perspectives, different continents but it's a pity the breeding barn is so universally dominant now. Lonhro and So You Think were the last champion stallions here to have lengthy careers.

The horse that always seems to be left out of discussions of that season is Asgard.

He raced in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane and had 26 starts as a 3YO winning ten races including the Australasian Champion Stakes, the WATC Derby (defeating Leica Lover and Imagele), the STC Tulloch Stakes (defeatimg Dalrello) and the QTC Grand Prix.

And he was an entire. Times change.

In 36 subsequent starts he won only 2 other races, both modest races at Morphettville. He produced no off spring.

It was a great year, Tonto. Fury's Order, Grey Way and Oopik were NZers from the same crop.

Asgard was the very definition of an iron horse. I had him in an old record as 14 wins; he had 2 as a 2yo. Purple Patch and Dalrello were also entires who raced on for 20 and 18 wins respectively. I know it was half a century ago and times change, but it would be good to see some of our 2 and 3yo champion stallions have more than their standard dozen or so starts.

I wonder if the modern thoroughbred is simply too fragile to stand the campaigns of horses of the past, and whether they have been made fragile by breeders shuttling northern stallions in preference to home grown stallions. I have zero evidence to support my argument but when you ask the question what happened to the thoroughbred in the past 50 years that it has gone from iron horse to fragility stallion shuttling is one of things that suggests itself - together with the dominance of Northern Dancer blood. Again, I have no evidence to support the claim other than the co-incidence.

Other co-incidences are the enforcement of policies relating to hormones, steroids and drugs, and in the last 25 years, track watering policy. A lot of other stuff has changed but not much that could be directly related to the durability of the horse. We have probably got better at patching horses up for racing careers that would have otherwise been looked over and rejected in the past in the days of bigger foal crops when the plethora of well staked 0-58 races simply wasn't on the cards. (not just 0-58's but all restricted grade racing has made racing some horses more economic than it was when such races were only worth beer money).

I must admit I do not find the modern racing era at all attractive and only linger out of habit. The 1970's was the era that converted me. The 2010's is the era that has lost me.

There was defacto grand circuit in the 1970's that started in Sydney then went to Melbourne, Perth, Melbourne again, Sydney again, Adelaide and Brisbane. The calendar was marked out by feature doubles at each of the grand circuit carnivals, usually held on public holiday weekends that focused punters attentions nationally. The best horses chased the prize money and the disparity between the carnivals feature prizemoney was not as great as the disparity between the grand circuit races and mundane events. There was none of this pattern system tosh. It was money and tradition that determined status and they went hand in hand. The best raced the best repeatedly throughout the season for the best money and the grand circuit tourists were challenged by the local heroes. The handicaps helped promote the local horse who raced into contention to do battle with the interstate stars.

Yet the racing was moderated. There was no need for 24/7, no need to bet every day of the year or every day of the week. Even a mid week meeting down the line could be something to look forward too and country clubs were permitted to have their open handicaps and welters. They weren't forced to run programs of maidens and BM58's.

And in the 1970's trainers sometimes sent good horses to the Victorian country to run in open races in Saturday meetings. I remember looking in the paper at a country Saturday meeting thinking that an open city class horse in each leg of the daily double was a certainty so I jogged down to the local TAB to have a 50 cent daily double. Can't remember who, where or when butIi seem to recall the double dividend was less than a dollar. Pattern racing has destroyed that.

He was regarded as an iron horse in an era when there were plenty of iron horses. He wasn’t a champion, but his record would have been much better if he hadn’t been runner-up to Hall of Famer, Poitrel, on 6 occasions. His Sydney Cup win in an Australasian record time under 9st 5lb (59.5kgs) was very impressive. He carried 9 stone (57 kgs) or more in each of his last 44 starts but, like some of his contemporaries, he was over-raced and his career at stud was ordinary. Like many of the Kenilworth progeny, he took a long time to mature but when he did, he was very competitive in an era of champions, racing against giants like Gloaming, Desert Gold, Eurythmic, Artilleryman and David, as well as Poitrel.